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Dogs are more important than you think

I miss my dogs. I know it’s been a while since I’ve mentioned it, but it seems to hit harder whenever I cover a story pertaining to the humane society. Don’t get me wrong, I like the dog I have now. I always thought goldendoodles were adorable. Like little teddy bears. Not real, but real, you know? But I have discovered that no dog, no matter how adorable, will ever take the place of the ones I have lost. For Christmas, my mom bought me a clear plastic tree ornament that shows the back of someone sitting on the ground between two dogs. She looks like me with the ...

Reflecting on the past, embracing the future

As I spent time reflecting during the holidays, I thought a great deal about how we never know what roads life will lead us down. When I was just a small business owner spending my days driving throughout the Eastern Panhandle, I didn’t realize then that the voices of Hoppy Kercheval, Don Marsh, and Stephen Reed would inspire me. They’d light a fire in me that would lead me to take a different and most rewarding path in my life that would lead me from Berkeley County to our state Capitol and the House of Delegates and finish with four years as the President of the West Virginia ...

Watching a game of political musical chairs

Some people continue to be upset that Gov. Jim Justice is waiting until Governor-Elect Patrick Morrisey’s inauguration on Monday, Jan. 13, to resign and take is place in the U.S. Senate to avoid having a total of four governors (two of those being Senate presidents acting as governor) in a 10-day span. However, there is at least two good reasons for the delay. First of all, it allowed former state treasurer Riley Moore to take his U.S. House of Representatives seat Friday when Congress returned from recess. While both the House and U.S. Senate have narrow GOP majorities for the new ...

Trying to set a few goals for the new year

We’re now a few days into the new year, and I’m wondering how many of us already have broken our resolutions? To be honest, I have a tendency not to set actual resolutions for that very reason. It’s the pressure we put on ourselves as part of the observance and tradition, and the disappointment we feel when we aren’t able to accomplish them. I don’t like making big lists at the beginning of the year, tending more to come up with a couple of goals every couple of months. Admittedly, that hasn’t helped much, especially in the last couple of years. However, there are a few ...

A welcome to 2025

Welcome to the new year. The future looks better for developments in West Virginia, with a change in administration taking place in Washington. Our Commission has engaged in several battles over the past year with the Environmental Protection Agency. Those disagreements primarily involved proposed federal pollution regulations, many adversely affecting our coal-fired plants. All of them ended up in court, and we lost most, if not all, of the first rounds of arguments. Regardless of one’s stance on pollution controls, coal still remains a vital part of the energy makeup of West ...

Not everybody celebrates another new year

Well, we blinked. And another year has come and gone. So, with that, I believe I am supposed to say, Happy New Year! Of course, I, for one, am not someone who celebrates the start of another year. To me, it is just another day — not the beginning of something different. I am that person who is usually asleep before midnight, the one who even if they are awake, does not watch the ball drop on television. I can’t get excited over things like that. I’m sorry. I have never been someone who pays tribute to a new year by attending a party. I have never gone drinking with ...